Ask HN: Google Maps alternative for planning and exploring?

Google Maps is really good at taking me from point A to point B. But when I want to explore the map or plan a trip, I find it very clumsy and awkward to use. I will preface this by saying that I have a really poor sense of direction, and that might be the cause of my frustration. Regardless, here are 2 examples: Example 1: I want to know where city A is relative to a place I'm familiar with (city B or my house). I search for city A. The map zooms in on city A, which is fine. I then zoom out, trying to get a sense of where it is. But if it's in another country or far away from me, I'd have to zoom way out to even hit a place I know. So I try to search for a 2nd place that I know, hoping it'd show both places in one view. But instead it does a crazy pan to city B, completely disorienting me. Example 2: I want to visit 2 places in one trip (think FedEx and UPS). I don't know their locations, but would like to make the shortest trip. I search for FedEx, and get maybe 5 results that are roughly the same distance from me. Then, I search for UPS, hoping to find one that's close to one of the 5 FedEx locations. But as soon as I hit search, all previous results go away and I'm back at square one. To be honest I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for. Is there a map UI that's significantly different from Google Maps that's worth trying?